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'Selfie' named word of the year for 2013

Model Barbara Palvin has been photographed by world-famous photographers. But that doesn't stop her from snapping selfie photos.

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'Selfie' named word of the year for 2013

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Updated: 3:23 PM PST Nov 19, 2013

(CNN) —

The most esteemed guardian of the English language gave a prestigious honor to a digital age phenomenon: the "selfie."

Selfie is the global Word of the Year 2013, according to Oxford Dictionaries.

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Given those circumstances, Oxford may not much care how you spell it.

You could go with "ie" or "y," as in "selfy."

Oxford says that doesn't change the official definition:

"A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website."

What is a selfie? Grab your smartphone, snap a self portrait, filter it with a Facebook, Twitter or Instagram photo effect, and upload.

Many times, these photos turn out looking awkward, over-posed, or narcissistic. But that has not stopped millions around the world from perpetuating the photo trend that Oxford believes began a decade ago.

The word first popped up in an Australian chat room on Sept. 13, 2002, to describe an undignified scene, the dictionaries' publishers believe.

This was the post: "Um, drunk at a mates 21st, I tripped ofer and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps. I had a hole about 1cm long right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie."

Yes, the first-ever known mention of the word "selfie" stemmed from an inebriated mouth with teeth protruding through its bottom lip.

For years after its birth, "selfie" crept through the web largely unnoticed.

But in 2012, it began its ascent to digital fame, Oxford says. Suddenly, everybody around the world was using the word, as they self-snapped away.

Many blogs responded to the selfie explosion by drawing up lists of the worst types of selfies, including the gym selfie, the car selfie, the pet selfie, and of course, the duck face selfie.

By August this year, Oxford proclaimed it a real English-language word and gave it a place in the dictionary -- but that was merely a stepping stone to lingual infamy.

"Language research conducted by Oxford Dictionaries editors reveals that the frequency of the word selfie in the English language has increased by 17,000 percent since this time last year," Oxford wrote in justifying its choice.

"Selfie" is not slouching on its thrown, Oxford says. It has already been very productive, pumping out offspring. It has given birth to "helfie" -- a photo of one's own hair; "belfie" -- a snapshot of one's own backside; and "drelfie" -- a photo of yourself when you're drunk.